Be Your Own Advocate

Why, as parents, do we not have the choice to say what our child should be offered for food and drink at preschool without a doctor's slip?!

Let me slow my roll for a quick second ...

Here is the back story - my daughter Nyla who is a sassy, high energy threenager has not been able to breathe through her nose for about two years. In mid-late last year, an x-ray showed that her nasal passage was just about closed off as her adenoids were blocking 90-95% of her airway. On September 4, her adenoids were removed. 

I was certain this was the fix and that my poor child would be able to breath [better] again. I had all the plans to help her (re)learn how to breathe through her nose again so that her throat and jawline would develop as it should. At her age, this is vital for a number of things.

Unfortunately, the adenoid removal did not help her breathing. Like, not at all. In fact, it got so bad that I was afraid of letting her fall asleep cause she was having apnea episodes (where she would stop breathing). There are so many health issues related to children who have obstructive sleep apnea and the more I read, the more freaked out I became.

Like any concerned parent would be, I decided to pursue another doctor's opinion who specialized in this area. The doctor came highly recommended. But as you would know it, the physician is booked for months - so here we wait.

In the meantime, Nyla came down with the stomach bug and did not eat much for two days. You would think being sick, her breathing would be worse. Magically, her breathing improved. So much that I was now checking on her to make sure she was alive as I couldn't hear her breathing down the hall. 

And in that moment, I knew it was food related! For a while I kept telling my husband that we need to cut dairy out. It's a very inflammatory food group and what if that is causing her issue. It's been almost a week now that she has had no dairy and wouldn't you know, she is sleeping better through the night, she doesn't have dark circles, she is waking more rested, etc. 

Now here is where I get highly pissed being the parent who "needs a doctor's slip" so that preschool can legally not offer my child milk with a heavily dairy based meal for breakfast and lunch! 

AS HER PARENT I SHOULD HAVE THE FINAL SAY!

Per her preschool, they "have" to offer her milk at both breakfast and lunch unless I provide a doctor's slip because they receive federal funding. This is because they must meet strict nutritional guidelines and water - are you ready - is not sufficient! 

Are you kidding me?! 

This is how much the government does not know anything about nutrition and it fuels me with rage. WATER is soooo important to the body. More so than fuckin' hormone filled milk that is probably being pulled from a poor mistreated cow with pussy, bleeding utters from being over-milked! Cause you know it's not organic milk being served!

Can you tell I'm not happy? And I'm not sorry for my passion on this. If you feed your child milk, then that's your prerogative as their parent and I don't judge you for it. However, if I don't want my kid consuming milk CAUSE SHE CANNOT BREATH FROM IT I should have that say, with or without a doctor's slip! 

Thankfully my daughters pediatrician is wonderful and provided me with a doctor's note, no questions asked. My point here is this ... be your child's advocate. Stay in tune to what they put in their bodies and how it affects them. Read about ingredients and learn more. They need you more than anyone in this world to go to bat for them.

I could've sat on the sidelines waiting for our specialists appointment that is in April and kept feeding my child dairy. I could've possibly put her through more surgery, if it was recommended. But if this is the fix, it's an easy one and she benefits in all ways.

Lastly, parenting is hard. I'm sharing this for the parent who is advocating for their child. Who may be going against the grain, like me. Keep fighting for those tiny people as they need us. ♥︎

Would love to hear from you if you've had a similar experience whether it be food related or just advocating. Drop them in the comments.